Page:Harry Castlemon - The Steel Horse.djvu/237

 "Oh, won't he? We'll see about that."

Roy Sheldon, who was deeply interested in that article in the Tribune, and congratulating himself on the fact that his name was not mentioned in it, and that consequently his father and mother would never hear of his adventure until he was ready to tell them about it, did not so much as raise his eyes when the reporter came in and sat down near him. He went on with his reading until he heard a pleasant voice say:

"Good morning, Mr. Sheldon. You have had a pretty rough experience, have you not?"

If the chair in which he was sitting had suddenly given away and let him down on the floor, Roy would not have been half as much astonished as he was when he heard himself addressed in this way by a man whom he had never seen before. He looked at him over the top of his paper, and then drew his head down behind it; whereupon the reporter pulled out his handkerchief and mopped his face to conceal the smile that came to his lips.

"Of course you don't mind what those light-ship men said to me," he continued.